Italian authorities arrested three volunteers involved in war against ISIS terrorist group
Italian police on Saturday arrested three Italians who were suspected of “war activities abroad.”
The three Italian volunteers were living on the island’s central city of Nuoro and southern city of Cagliari, Italian news agency ANSA reported.
One of them, Pierluigi Caria, 33, was most likely planning to travel to eastern Syria to join the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) offensive on the country’s last IS-held pocket.
As a result, the police seized his passport to prevent him from further travel.
Caria was identified after a picture spread online showed him together with French Olivier Francois Jean le Clainche who was killed by a Turkish airstrike in Afrin on Feb. 10. In the photo, one of them is holding a Kalashnikov, while the other is holding his fist in the air.
Italian political analyst Marco Gombacci and the founder of the European Post told Kurdistan 24 the arrest is a legal issue, and not a political one.
“According to Italian Law (Criminal Code) art. 288 punishes the recruitment of persons for the purpose of fighting on behalf of a foreign state or an insurrection group,” Gombacci explained.
The political analyst rejected Turkish government media reports that it was a “special operation” against the People’s Protection Units (YPG).
“It’s against recruitment of Italians who wants to join a fight on behalf of foreign country or insurrection group, whoever they are,” he said.
“There were also investigations for other pro-YPG fighters, and other Italians that wanted to go fight in Ukraine.”
Foreign volunteers were also arrested, prosecuted, questioned or investigated in other European countries, such as the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Denmark, despite their fight against IS, which is recognized as an international terrorist organization.
The arrest of the three Italian nationals sparked anger among foreign volunteers that risked their lives to fight against the extremist group. Especially after the SDF just announced the arrest of an Italian IS fighter that planned to return to Italy through Turkey.
“After the SDF arrested a dangerous Italian IS member on his way to Italy, the SDF have prevented a massacre of only God knows how many innocent Italian people,” Arges, a Spanish volunteer who fought against IS in Syria for two years, told Kurdistan 24.
“The Italian Government now shows its gratitude by arresting one of the SDF’s Italian volunteers that had actively put his life in danger to protect Italian people.”
Source: Kurdistan 24
